DPL Reading List – December 14, 2018

Edge dies a death of a thousand cuts as Microsoft switches to Chromium – The company’s browser will still be named Edge and should retain the current look and feel. The decision to switch was motivated primarily by compatibility problems: Web developers increasingly test their pages exclusively in Chrome, which has put Edge at a significant disadvantage. Microsoft’s engineers have found that problematic pages could often be made Edge compatible with only very minor alterations, but because Web devs aren’t using Edge at all, they don’t even know that they need to change anything.”

Millennial Pink is dead, and Pantone’s Color of the Year killed it – “The reign of Millennial Pink–that literally and figuratively cool hue whose blue undertones flattered no one–seems to be coming to an end at last. In its place? We have Living Coral. It’s Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2019, following the company’s annual, wide-ranging analysis of color trends across culture. Living Coral is comforting and energizing at the same time, a color meant to serve as a salve in a time of global uncertainty.”

50 Years Later, We Still Don’t Grasp the Mother of All Demos – “At the event in 1968, Engelbart didn’t just show off the mouse and hypertext documents as cool. He, Rulifson, and fellow Augmented Research Center engineer Bill Paxton demonstrated how the team used the hypertext system to collaborate.”

How the blockchain is changing the art market – “Leaders in humanitarian aid, finance, technology, and more have embraced the distributed ledger known as blockchain to bring transparency to their operations. The art world is experimenting with it as well, seeing the technology as a way to revolutionize how art is bought and sold, thwart fraud and tax evasion, and reduce friction during the auction process.”

Microsoft Wants to Stop AI’s ‘Race to the Bottom’ – “Smith’s speech Thursday echoed a call for regulation facial-recognition technology that he first made in July, but offered new specifics. He listed six principles that he said should guide use and regulation of facial recognition: fairness, transparency, accountability, non-discrimination, notice and consent, and lawful surveillance. He said Microsoft next week would publish a document with suggestions on implementing these principles.”

Don’t Give Up on a Great Idea Just Because It Seems Obvious – “The biggest reason I held back wasn’t fear, being too busy or lazy, or any of the other natural blockades to entrepreneurship. It was something else. I didn’t move on this idea because it seemed obvious. It made so much sense to me that I was convinced someone else would do it. So, I assumed it would be a waste of time and energy for me. I was wrong. And it turns out I would have known better if I had listened to some of the best-known innovators, including Isaac Asimov and Steve Jobs. Obviousness, it turns out, is a common — and even important — part of the creative process.”